It’s never cool when a child dies, and it is definitely not something that should be celebrated. But that doesn’t seem to apply here, as a local kid took his Metro Cop mother’s gun to school and gunned down the school bully – leaving a bunch of kids ‘relieved’ and ‘free.’

Relieved. At peace. Free. These are some of the feelings expressed by pupils at Phineas Xulu Secondary School after the fatal shooting of Nkululeko Ndlovu by another pupil on Tuesday.

Early on Tuesday a Grade 11 pupil, 18, apparently tired of being bullied, took his mother’s gun to school and shot dead his tormenter in the classroom. He has been arrested and charged with murder.

The pupils, who could not be named, told The Star they were neither saddened nor bothered by Nkululeko’s death, as they, too, had been victims of his bullying.

“We never [wanted] to go to the toilets because were were scared of him. One day I was at the toilet and he came in, grabbed me by my private parts and took my money. His friends were just standing there, laughing,” a Grade 8 boy, 14, said.

Others said Nkululeko often took their caps, memory cards and money. They did not fight back because they were scared of him, saying he and his friends used to smoke dagga at the toilets.

A Grade 10 girl said that if the school had taken action against Nkululeko and his friends a long time ago, this would have not happened.